


Deep in the sea, I'll show you what I'm dreaming of

by BabyBananya



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Domino is a small coastal town and Yuugi is a very bored cashier, M/M, Rating May Change, Tags to be added, and then i wrote 14k in less than 3 days, atem is a mermaid except no he isnt. yes he is <3, im unwell, so enjoy, this came to my brain at an unholy hour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25267555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyBananya/pseuds/BabyBananya
Summary: It would be another few hours at least before he would have to start opening up shop- he was sure his grandpa was still asleep soundly upstairs, and, married to his work as that man was, even he didn't wake up this early.But Yuugi couldn't sleep.(Yuugi is a lost highschool graduate stuck in a tiny seaside town, and Atem is a mermaid. What happens next will shock you!😳)
Relationships: Atem/Mutou Yuugi, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	Deep in the sea, I'll show you what I'm dreaming of

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic in about 10 years, and the first one i've ever posted!! ive always loved reading mermaid AUs, so i was really excited to write one. the title is from ocean love from the movie help im a fish because im the most original person alive.  
> anyways, enjoy!

Yugi sat on his grandpa's deck and stared out over the sea. The beginnings of the morning sun glinted and reflected on the waves, choppy with the strong breeze blowing in from the south. He sunk into his coat a little, rubbing his hands together to try and generate some heat. Summer was ending, and the cold had begun to creep into the mornings and evenings again.  
  
It would be another few hours at least before he would have to start opening up shop- he was sure his grandpa was still asleep soundly upstairs, and, married to his work as that man was, even he didn't wake up this early.   
  


But Yugi couldn't sleep.   
  


As summer came to a close, the question of his future was becoming more and more prominent whenever he didn't have something to distract him away from it, and... it stressed him out. It scared him. As much as he wanted to have a set life plan, he just, well, _didn't_ . And that fact became increasingly obvious the more he put off making any big decisions.  
  
It had been a year since he had graduated high school, and all his friends seemed to be doing what they loved. Anzu was studying dance at the fancy foreign school of her dreams, Honda and Ryou were both in university, Otogi had taken over his father's shop in the city. Hell, even Jou had scored an apprenticeship at the local mechanic, and Yugi knew how much he enjoyed it, even with how he constantly complained about being covered in oil all the time and having to deal with shitty customers.  
  
But Yugi was just... here. Helping his grandpa out at the shop like always. He had at least gotten a part time job at the convenience store close to their house a few months back, but that was just so he could have some extra cash kicking around, and he most definitely didn't want that to be what he was stuck doing for the rest of his life.  
  
He stared harder into the waves, as if he was waiting for them to spit an answer out at him from down beneath the depths, but it gave him nothing but the heavy scent of salt in the breeze and the lapping of the water at the base of the deck.

He sighed, huddled closer still into his jacket, and laid down, letting his feet dangle over the edge. He popped his earbuds in and put his playlist on shuffle, trying to will his thoughts to drift to less stressful things.

×××

_I hate tourists_ , Yugi decided. _So, so much._

It had been a long day in his grandpa's souvenir shop, the summer always bringing with it people taking the long train ride from the city to their tiny town to swarm the beach like ants. Those same people were apparently unable to resist picking up a cheaply made magnet or novelty pair of flip flops on their way back home. Sometimes they got some people coming in interested in the various rare card and board games his grandpa dedicated a special corner of the shop to, giving Yugi a much needed break from being a slave to the cash register to explain the rules of one of them to the prospective customer. He treasured those moments, but they were few and far between, and even more the ones where the customer actually bought one of the games or a card set he had recommended.  
  
He had just made one of those sales, the customer finally leaving the shop with a ring of the door chime after a lengthy conversation about the latest Duel Monsters releases, when his phone's alarm went off in his pocket. Closing time.   
  
He sighed gratefully, letting his customer service smile drop as he rolled his shoulders and stepped around the counter, weaving through the racks of postcards and knick knacks to flip the 'open' sign over to 'closed'. He finished closing the shop up methodically while his thoughts wandered- it was mostly muscle memory at this point. He had just finished sweeping the floor when his phone buzzed again in his pocket, this time with a text message.

  
joujonas at 5:16pm  
  
 _sorry king cant make it, old mans bustin my balls_ , it read. Yugi raised an eyebrow.  
  
  
darkmagician01 at 5:16pm   
  
_staying late again?  
_ _  
_ _  
_ joujonas at 5:17pm   
  
_new guy fucked up some ladies car so now i gotta fix it  
_ _  
_ _  
_ darkmagician01 at 5:17pm   
  
_bummer :( rain check??  
_ _  
_ _  
_ joujonas at 5:18pm   
  
_yeah if they ever let me leave this fuckin place ill get back to you  
_ _  
_ _  
_ darkmagician01 at 5:18pm   
  
_okay, just lmk!!  
_ _  
_ _  
_ Yugi sighed and slipped his phone back into his pocket. He hadn’t been able to hang out with anyone in weeks, and he was starting to miss his friends. They used to complain about it being hard to get time to get together in highschool, but now it seemed the problem had gotten even worse, everyone having their lives and jobs and school to juggle.   
  
_Everyone except me_ , he thought, but he pushed it away just as quickly, frowning as he walked into the back room and changed out of his work clothes and into his usual t-shirt and jeans. He was sure they’d find time to get together soon, there was no need to worry about it… but he did. He did worry about it. He worried about it a lot, actually.   
  
He shook his head, speed walking out of the front of the shop and locking the door quickly, shoving his keys into his back pocket and continuing briskly down the sidewalk towards the little concrete incline that led to the beach below where the shop was perched, along with a few others that shared the wide pier. A walk would clear his head, it always did.   
  
Something about the ocean calmed Yugi. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but all it took was a few minutes of feeling the breeze on his face and having the roar of the waves in his ears to ease the anxiety curling in his stomach. That was one of the reasons he had decided to stay in Domino, rather than moving to the big city like Ryou, Honda, or Otogi. He would miss the sea too much.   
And, in a strange way, he felt like it would miss him, too.   
  
He pulled off his shoes when he got to the bottom of the ramp, holding onto the handrail so he wouldn’t fall in his rush to peel off his socks and feel the sand on the pads of his feet. His hands brushed against the branches of a low hanging pine, the needles tickling against his skin as if they were saying hello. He smiled, finally barefoot, and stuffed his socks into his shoes, carrying them with him as he walked towards the water.   
  
As Yugi strolled along the shore, the waves occasionally lapping up to meet his feet, he felt all the tension slowly bleed out from his body. He watched the sand as he walked, looking for little shells or sea glass or other little bits and bobs on the way. He wouldn’t find much here, he knew- tourists beachcombed from sunrise to sunset on the beach in front of the boardwalk, stripping it of all of the treasures that surely washed ashore- but still, he liked to look, even if he wouldn't find anything.  
  
The real prize was waiting for him beyond the approaching cliffside.   
  
He brushed off his feet, pulled his socks and shoes back on, and disregarded the “DANGER! FALLING ROCKS, CLIMBING PROHIBITED” sign as usual, scaling the salt worn rocks, practiced. He grunted as he pushed himself up to the top and stopped to let himself breathe in the familiar view of the sun getting lower and lower over the sea.   
  
The cliffs that bordered Domino Beach weren’t an easy or worthwhile climb to someone who didn’t know the area. The most Yugi had seen of tourists on them were the occasional kids searching through the rock pools down below, parents keeping a watchful eye on them so they didn’t poke at the wrong sea creature.   
  
But to him, it was his favourite place in the entire town. His favourite place in the whole world, maybe.   
  
There were scraggly shrubs and grasses at the top which gave way to small white and yellow and purple wildflowers in the spring, it was away from the bustle of people on the main beach, and the cliffs themselves stretched onwards for longer than Yugi had been able to walk the one time he tried. They hugged flush with the sea like an embrace, save for the occasional small coves nestled into spots that were only barely a strip of sand at high tide. To most people it wasn’t worth the climb… but to Yugi it was breathtaking no matter how many weeks on end he spent up there, watching the sunrise or set or walking along looking for a place to climb down to and explore, or whatever he felt like doing on that day.   
  
Today was an exploration day, he decided, and he got up. He wouldn’t have much time- it was about an hour or two before the sun began to set, and the wind was picking up and beginning to make the ocean choppy, bringing a chill with it- but he didn’t mind. If he found something interesting he could easily make his way back another day.   
  
He walked atop the cliffs slowly, eyes scanning the rocks below for a patch of sand that piqued his interest. It didn’t take him long to find something.   
  
He had only been walking for less than 5 minutes when he saw a flash in the corner of his eye. Something shiny and metallic was glinting down below on the sand of one of the larger coves nearer to the beach. Yugi squinted, leaning carefully over the ledge to try and get a better look, but couldn’t quite make it out. It was too small. Maybe a lost watch, or a piece of jewellery?   
  
_Or a tin can._ He thought, but he was trying to be optimistic here.   
  
Either way, he found himself climbing carefully down the bumpy cliffside and landing with the crunch of his boots on the thin layer of sand spread out on the flat rocks at the base. He brushed his hands off on his pants and made his way down the beach where he thought he had seen the mystery object. It took a bit of digging around in the sand to find where it was, the tide seemingly having washed overtop and hidden it while he was making his climb, but when he finally felt cold metal and tried to pull it out he gasped. It was definitely not a tin can. Tin cans weren’t this _heavy._   
  
He got it free of the wet sand and shook off the clumping grains that stuck to his hand and the object, then held it up to get a better look.   
The first thing he noticed was the golden eye staring straight at him. To the sides of it extended two large pieces of metal that he could only interpret as wings, which extended further down still, and there was a delicate looking blue pearl inlaid on each side. The whole thing was covered in intricate little carvings, and there was a thinner band of metal running along the back to make it a near circle. It was almost like some sort of… crown? Yugi’s own eyes widened as he turned the object around in his hands, trying to make sense of it. _Is this real gold?_ He wondered, staring at it. And what was it doing washed up here of all places? No one besides Yugi had probably been down here in years.   
  
Or, he thought so, until he was interrupted by a pained groan behind him.   
  
He whipped his head around, searching for the person who made the sound, but came up empty, unable to see past the dunes and piles of washed up seaweed. He stood frozen and listened for something else, but nothing came besides the roaring of the rough sea in his ears. The minutes ticked by slowly, and he frowned, seeing and hearing nothing out of place. He went to turn back around, deciding it was just his imagination, or maybe a seagull’s cry distorted by the strengthening wind.   
But… if it _was_ someone, what if they were hurt? His frown deepened.   
  
“Hey, uh... is someone there?” He called out, only half expecting a response. He waited again, beginning to feel the chill of the evening wash over him. He shivered, before laughing nervously to himself, feeling silly. _I should get home_ , he decided, and began to walk back to the cliffs.   
  
And heard another groan, louder this time, and most definitely human. Once again, Yugi stilled, before snapping out of it. There was someone, and that someone sounded injured.   
  
“Hey, are you okay? Where are you, do you need help?” he called, walking towards the sand dunes where he thought he had heard the voice when he heard no response. “Hello?” He tried again.   
  
Another sound, this time a whine and a hiss. Yugi’s eyes searched the dunes but saw nothing. He was beginning to panic at the thought of some poor tourist slipping on the wet rocks above and tumbling down, laying there for who knows how long until he came along. _What if they’re bleeding?_ He thought. If they needed serious medical attention he would need help.   
  
He took his phone out of his pocket. No signal. He cursed under his breath. _Why is it always me?_ He thought.   
  
“If you can’t speak try to make some noise, it’ll help me find you!” He yelled. Silence. He kept looking, scanning the dunes and mounded up seaweed for any signs of life. The sun was starting to go down, only increasing his worry. He decided in a split second to stop looking and make his way up the side of the cove and find enough service to call someone for help instead. He cupped his hand around his mouth to yell out to the person again and let them know he wasn’t abandoning them, still walking over the large dunes, when he felt the sand shift under his feet unevenly.   
  
Yugi tumbled over himself, rolling down the other side of the dune he was attempting to stumble over. He clutched the crown to his chest reflexively. Rocks and rough pieces of shell and grit scraped his arms and hands as he put the free one out in front of him to catch the brunt of his fall. All the air was knocked out of his lungs at once in an “oof!”, and he rolled onto his side. He laid there for a few seconds, catching his breath, eyes screwed shut from the sting of the tiny scrapes all over his exposed skin. Finally, he stuck his hand out to get some leverage on the ground and push himself up, but he froze. He felt something soft and... _warm_ . He shot bolt upright, snatching his hand away from whatever the _hell_ that was, and looked to his side with wide eyes.   
  
Laying next to him was... a _man_. A seemingly _unconscious_ man, chest rising and falling fast and shallow. Yugi looked at him in shock for a few moments, before his brain processed what he was seeing. He shuffled over on his knees to the man’s side, forgetting about his own pain for a moment. He reached out and touched his shoulder, caked in dry crusted on sand, and shook him gently, seeing if he would rouse. The man furrowed his brows in pain and let out a whine, but otherwise didn’t show any signs of waking up. Well. That probably wasn’t good.  
  
“Hey, can you hear me?” Yugi tried. Nothing.   
  
He looked around uselessly while he tried to think of what to do, but paled when he saw a slowly spreading pool of blood coming from underneath the man’s shoulder. Cursing underneath his breath, he got up, ignoring the ache in his arms and legs from his tumble. In the back of his head he hoped he wasn’t bruised too bad, but he didn’t let himself dwell on it, breaking out into a run towards the cliffside.   
  
“Stay right there!” He yelled over his shoulder. “I’ll get help!”   
  
The man didn’t answer, but Yugi assumed that was because he was passed out bleeding on the beach. Still, Yugi didn’t know if he could still hear him, so he thought it would be good to let him know he wasn’t just abandoning him to die or something, right? If it was him in that situation he would like to know.   
  
_I might be overthinking this_. He thought, hefting himself up to the first foothold in the cliffside. He was always worse at climbing up than climbing down, and it was only made more difficult by the crown he still held in his hand, but he did his best to power through, ignoring the burning in his arms and thanking his lucky star that the cliff wasn’t a sheer vertical climb as he scaled the rocks as fast as he could. His heart was going a mile a minute, but he finally managed to scramble over the side and lay panting on the rough grass on the clifftop. The blood rushed in his ears and the darkening sky swam in front of his eyes while he regained his breath. He swallowed dryly. He should have bought a water bottle, but he didn’t expect to have to be attempting to set the rock climbing world record today.   
  
Head still spinning, he grabbed for his phone and pulled it out of his pocket. Who was he even supposed to call? An ambulance? The coast guard? The pope? Is there a designated service you should call when finding mysterious naked men passed out on the beach?   
  
In the end, he decided on Jounouchi.   
  
His fingers shook as he searched down his contacts, clicking on Jou’s name and praying that he was off work by now.   
  
It rang once. Twice. Three times.   
  
“Yugi?” asked a bewildered voice on the other end of the line. It was rare for Yugi to call, especially out of the blue.   
  
“Jounouchi-kun,” He began, relieved, trying to think through what he was supposed to even say.   
  
“The one and only,” came the reply, but it was lacking its usual joking tone, replaced instead with confusion and concern. “You okay? You sound like you just ran the mile.” Yugi laughed, still slightly breathless.   
  
“You could say that.”   
  


×××

  
  
Yugi sighed, repositioning himself on the uncomfortable plastic chair. He sat in the ER waiting room of Domino’s only tiny hospital, switching between staring at the crown he still held loosely in his hands and gazing out the large glass windows at the front, into the darkness, waiting to see the headlights of his grandpa’s car. Jou was beside him, fidgeting with his phone.   
  
After he had called Jou and explained the situation, Yugi had made his way back down the cliffside to sit with the man until Jou could come and help them both heft the man up the shallower part of the cove. It was difficult, but they eventually got him up to the top and then down again to Jou’s car, after which he sped them to the clinic at a speed that Yugi was sure wasn’t legal. When they had gotten there, Yugi had dazedly called his grandfather to let him know why he would be absent for dinner, and the man had gotten in the car immediately. His grandpa wasn’t always the most serious man, but he was reliable, and Yugi was thankful he had him.   
  
“Well, at least we got to hang out,” Jou joked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He snorted.   
  
“Yeah, I’d take this over snacks and video games any day,” he replied, rolling his eyes. This time it was Jou’s turn to laugh. He was his usual breezy self, but Yugi could see how tired he was underneath. His eyes had dark bags under them, and he kept rubbing at his neck like it was sore. It must have been a hard day, and then Yugi’d called him right after he got off work for this… Yugi felt a twinge of guilt curl in his chest.   
  
“Excuse me?” They turned their heads towards the door to the office the man was being seen in. “Are you the boys who brought in the man from the beach?”   
  
“Yep,” Jou replied. “Everything okay in there?”   
  
“Ah… well,” she started and stopped. Yugi’s stomach dropped. That wasn’t a good sign. “He’s… awake, but he’s refusing to speak to the doctor.” She looked stressed, and Yugi could see why. They had shown up with a random bleeding man, and it was getting late. She’d probably had a long enough shift already. Yugi frowned.  
  
“Would you like us to try and talk to him?” He offered. It was the least he could do.   
  
“If you could try it would be a big help,” she said, nodding. Yugi got up, and put his hand out when Jou went to follow.   
  
“I got this, you just keep an eye out for Jii-chan.” He smiled. Jou smiled back gratefully.   
  
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, king.” He relaxed back into his seat as Yugi followed the nurse through the hallway to the ER.   
  
The first thing he saw when he pushed past the privacy curtain behind her was the man from the beach, thankfully now clothed in a standard hospital gown, glaring daggers at another man he presumed to be a doctor. The man from the beach was pressed up against the headboard of the hospital bed and bristling like an angry cat. His mouth was open in a snarl, bearing his teeth threateningly. Yugi paused awkwardly, still holding the curtain open, when the man’s eyes fixed on him, and then trailed downwards, spotting the metal-gold-possibly-crown-thing in his hands. The man’s eyes widened, and he looked back up to Yugi’s face, confused.   
  
“Uh,” Yugi started. The doctor turned towards him, seemingly not having noticed him until now, and looked relieved.   
  
“Oh, you’re the one who brought him in, yes?” Yugi nodded.   
  
“I found him passed out on the beach,” he explained. “I don’t know him, and I couldn’t find any kind of ID or anything, but I thought, um…” he trailed off, unsure as to what to say. He looked towards the man, and they locked eyes for a second. Yugi had to look away, his heart skipping a beat. The look in the man’s red eyes was intense, like he was looking into him. The doctor cleared his throat.   
  
“Well,” he said, “I’ll step out if you’d like to try to have a word with him?” He seemed a bit too eager to do so, Yugi thought, but he understood why. The man didn’t look like he was being especially cooperative.   
  
“Uuuuh, sure, sounds good,” he said. The doctor was already inching out of the room.   
  
“Just press the call button or come to the front if you need anything,” the nurse said, shooting him a sympathetic look. She looked just as eager to get out of there as the doctor did, and before Yugi could even nod they were both gone.   
  
Slowly, he turned around to the man. He was still looking at Yugi with that same intense stare that made it hard to meet his eyes. Yugi opened and closed his mouth, unsure as to what to say.   
  
“Hi,” he started, lamely, putting his hand up in a wave. “Uh, I’m Yugi… I’m the one who found you, you were passed out down past Domino beach.” The man said nothing, just continued to stare. Yugi floundered.   
  
“Could I, uh, have your name?” He asked. “If not that’s okay, just, uh, you didn’t have any ID on you and the hospital probably needs it for records, and to maybe call your family? I mean, if you have them or… Well, I mean, you must _have_ them, otherwise how would you even be here, but, uh, I know some people aren’t on good terms with their family so maybe you wouldn’t want to talk to them, I guess? So if you have a friend or something that’s okay too. I mean, I’m sure you do have friends, I didn’t mean it like that or anything, just, uh, you know-” The man put up one of his hands, signalling him to stop. Yugi did so, feeling slightly embarrassed by his nervous rambling. He cleared his throat, waiting for the man to speak. And waiting. And waiting.   
  
The man stayed silent. His eyes occasionally flicked from Yugi’s face to the crown, brows furrowed, but he said nothing. Yugi looked around uselessly, trying to find something to say, or decide if he should even keep speaking at all and just wait for the man to give him some other kind of signal.   
  
“Um,” Yugi started, but the man held his hand out again. Yugi closed his mouth.   
  
The man looked around the room for something, eyes scanning the table beside him, the IV, and flicking back to Yugi every once and awhile. Finally, he adjusted himself slightly where he was propped up in the bed, and bought a hand up to his throat. He made a motion like he was being choked. Yugi looked at him quizzically.   
  
“Thirsty?” He asked. The man shook his head. He did the motion again.   
  
“Your throat hurts…?” The man shook his head more vigorously this time, doing the motion a third time, then taking his hand back and making a fist and letting it go, palm open towards Yugi. Realization dawned on him.   
  
“Something’s wrong with your throat? You can’t speak?” He asked. The man nodded quickly. Yugi looked around for something to write with. “I’ll be right back!”   
  
He dashed down the hallway towards the reception desk. The woman behind the glass looked at him with wide eyes.   
  
“Do you have anything to write with, please?” he asked quickly. “I just need it for a few minutes.”   
  
“Uh, yes, one second,” she opened up a drawer next to her and took out a sheet of printer paper. She slipped it through the slot in the glass and then grabbed a pen from the pen cup next to her computer, handing it to him.   
  
“Thanks!” He said, taking them and speed walking back to the man’s cubicle. The man was staring at the wall with an unreadable expression, but his eyes snapped to Yugi as soon as he pulled back the curtain.   
  
Yugi walked towards him, putting the crown and paper down on the little table to the side of the bed and wheeling it over. He clicked the pen and handed it to the man, who looked at it like he didn’t know what it was.   
  
“You can write with this if you want, then I can read it and respond.” The man furrowed his brows, still looking confused, but he pressed it to the paper clumsily and began to… draw a straight line. Alright. He looked back up to Yugi.   
  
“Can you… not write?” He asked. The man looked back at the paper, seemingly pondering the question, before nodding. Yugi let out a hum. This complicated things to say the least, but he was sure they could find a work around to it if they tried hard enough.   
  
“Pictures?” He suggested. The man raised an eyebrow. “Draw what you want to say and I’ll try and figure it out.” The man’s eyes widened in understanding. He pressed the pen to the paper again, then paused, thinking.   
  
“Take your time, it’s okay,” Yugi encouraged him. He went to drag one of the chairs to the side of the bed and sat down, giving the man time to figure out what he needed to say. He finally began to draw, pausing every few seconds to correct the pen fumbling in his hand. When he was finished he put the pen down on the table, satisfied, and looked at Yugi again. Yugi took the piece of paper and examined it. A big wave-adjacent shape, some squiggly lines, something that looked like a seashell, and a crude drawing of… the crown? Yugi gasped.   
  
“Is that yours?” he asked, pointing to the crown. The man nodded. “I found it on the beach, just before I found you. What is it?” He momentarily forgot the reason he was talking to the man, eager to learn more about the strange metal object. The man picked it up and delicately put it on his head, adjusting it so that the eye was resting in the middle of his forehead and the wings splaying out the side at his temples. It seemed to fit him perfectly. _So it_ was _a crown_ , he thought.   
  
“Wow,” Yugi said. “You must be pretty important, I don’t think many regular tourists walk around with solid gold crowns on their heads.” The man looked at him questioningly, but Yugi was focused on the other drawings on the paper, letting out a hum. His hand came up to rest on his chin.   
  
“What’s this squiggly thing?” he pointed to the two squiggles above the wave. The man considered how to respond for a second, before pursing his lips and blowing. “Oh!” Yugi exclaimed. “Wind?” The man nodded.   
  
“So it was windy, there was a big wave, and then… there were seashells?” He traced the drawing with his fingertip. The man considered this answer for a second, before nodding. Yugi mirrored him.   
  
“Okay… were you swimming and the water got rough? And you ended up getting washed up on the beach?” He took a stab in the dark. The man took a second to think again, looking at the paper, before apparently deciding that Yugi’s explanation seemed good enough. He nodded.   
  
“Hm… alright,” he said. “I know you can’t write, so how can I get your name? Is there something you could draw?” The man looked down at the paper, eyes boring holes in it. He looked back up at Yugi, which Yugi interpreted as a no. He let out another hum.   
  
“Can you read Japanese?” He asked. The man shook his head. “Okay, uh... what about English?” The man leaned his head from side to side.   
  
“Is that a ‘sort-of’?” The man nodded. Yugi smiled.   
  
“Good enough!” he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up a note, switching to the english keyboard. The man looked at him in wonder as he used the device, and Yugi raised an eyebrow. Surely he had a phone of his own? It was rare for someone not to these days, and even rarer for someone to not even know what one was, save the extremely young or old. Which this man was neither- he looked remarkably close to Yugi’s age, actually. Yugi hoped he hadn't hit his head too hard when he washed up on the shore...  
  
“Here,” he said, putting the phone down flat on the table. When the man just looked at it, he continued. “Press the letters and it’ll write your name," he explained.  
  
The man regarded it cautiously, keeping his hands at his sides as he moved his head around to look at it. After a few moments, he lifted one of them and used his index finger to press hard onto the “A” key. He held it there, unsure. He pressed harder.  
  
“Hey, be careful, those aren’t cheap!” Yugi joked. “You can just tap it.” He waited for the man to move his hand and demonstrated, writing his name slowly. His english wasn’t the most polished, but he had taken it through highschool, and he was glad he at least had the alphabet still floating around in his head somewhere.   
  
“See? And then, if you make a mistake, you can press here to delete it.” He tapped at the backspace button until his name disappeared. The poor man looked totally out of his depth, but nodded slightly, lifting his hand back up and hovering it there. He mouthed something, thinking, before tapping the T key, followed slowly by the E and M. ‘ATEM’. He put his hands down again, and stared at it for a few moments, before looking to Yugi again for approval. Yugi smiled.   
  
“Is that it?” The man nodded. “Okay… Atem?” he tried, sounding it out. The man frowned. Yugi tried again.   
  
“Atem?” he pronounced it slightly differently, and the man nodded vigorously, smiling. Yugi grinned back. As frustrating as this was, he had to admit, it was kind of fun. He had always enjoyed games like pictionary or charades, and this wasn’t that far off, if he squinted.   
  
“Alright, Atem, do you think you could write what happened to you with this?” He gestured to the phone. The man, Atem, frowned again, and then after a moment he shook his head. He looked like he wanted to be as far away from the smartphone as possible. Yugi rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re not making this the easiest for me, you know,” he said. Atem just looked at him and raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘okay, and?’. Yugi laughed.   
  
“It’s fine, yes or no questions it is then.” He took his phone back, clicking it off and putting it in his lap. Atem relaxed, waiting for Yugi to continue. He took a second to think, before deciding on an easy one first.   
  
“Are you Japanese?” He considered it, then shook his head. Interesting, but not surprising. Not only could he not read Japanese, but he didn’t look Japanese at all.   
  
“Okay, you’re here on vacation, then?” He shook his head again. Yugi raised an eyebrow.   
  
“You live here?” He tilted his head in thought, before nodding.   
  
“Hm… Are you from this area?” No.   
  
“From far away, then?” Also no.   
  
“From one of the neighbouring prefectures?” Atem tilted his head side to side again. Another ‘sort-of’. Yugi raised his eyebrow, but decided to leave it for now. He didn’t know how to inquire further.   
  
“Do you have someone we can call to pick you up?” No. Yugi frowned. He didn’t know what to say to that either, so he just asked another question.   
  
They continued on like this for a good 15 minutes, before they were interrupted by the same nurse from before, the doctor close behind her.   
  
“Everything okay?” She asked, eyeing Atem suspiciously, as if she suspected he would jump out of the bed any second and attack her. Yugi smiled at her.   
  
“Yeah, everything’s fine!”   
  
She hummed, looking unconvinced. The doctor pushed past her gently, into the room.   
  
“How are you feeling?” He asked Atem. Atem stayed silent, only narrowing his eyes at him. The doctor looked at Yugi.   
  
“He can’t speak,” Yugi explained. “He can’t read or write, either, so we’ve been using this.” He held up the piece of paper.   
  
“I see…” The doctor said. Suddenly, two heads popped into the curtain behind him.   
  
“Yugi!” His grandpa said, worry all over his face. Yugi waved sheepishly. Jou waved back.   
  
“Hey, Jii-chan,” he said. “I’m okay.” he said before he was asked. His grandpa searched his face for any sign he was lying, before nodding, satisfied. He and Jou stepped into the room.   
  
“Jounouchi-kun told me what happened,” his grandpa said, in a stern tone that was very rare to hear from him. “I’ve told you you shouldn’t be climbing around on those cliffs, it’s dangerous!”   
  
“I know… Sorry, Jii-chan,” he winced. He never liked being scolded, but who did?   
  
“I mean, if Yugi wasn’t there then this guy probably would’ve been some lucky seagull’s biggest meal ever,” Jou said. Grandpa rolled his eyes.  
  
“That’s true, Jounouchi-kun, but that’s not my point.” Jou put his hands up in surrender, shooting an apologetic look Yugi’s way.   
  
“In any case," His grandpa continued, shooting Jou a look. "How is this young man?” He asked, gesturing to Atem. “He must have had quite the accident.”   
  
“Ah, well…” Yugi trailed off to think.   
  
It took a little while to explain everything to everyone, but he managed it somehow, Atem looking around the room with his eyes narrowed the whole time. At some point he grabbed onto the back of Yugi’s shirt and held onto it, and Yugi let him. He figured he would be just as confused and scared if it was him in that situation.   
  
“Well,” the doctor began, after Yugi’s long winded explanation, “It’s late, and I am sure everyone is tired- especially Mr. Atem. He’s free to stay in the hospital for tonight, and we can figure out things to better accommodate him tomorrow so we can get in contact with his family. You’re all free to go home and get some rest. Thank you for bringing him in, boys, I’m sure it must have been difficult.”   
  
“Understatement of the year,” Jou said. Yugi rolled his eyes.   
  
“It was no trouble, really.” He went to stand up, but was stopped by Atem’s hand fisted in the back of his shirt. He turned his head to see him looking at Yugi with wide, worried eyes. Yugi put his hand on top of Atem’s.   
  
“Hey, it’s okay, I’ll come back first thing tomorrow morning, yeah?” He assured him. His grandpa cleared his throat, raising his eyebrow at him. He was supposed to work in the shop again tomorrow.   
  
“Aw, come on Jii-chan, this is kind of a special circumstance, right?” He whined. His grandpa gave him a hard look before he sighed, giving in.   
  
“Fine, but you’ll be making it up later this week.” He waved his hand. That threat held no water, and they both knew it, but that was alright for now. Yugi smiled.   
  
“Thanks, Jii-chan,” he said. His grandfather rolled his eyes, muttering something about young people being unreliable. Yugi turned back to Atem, untangling his hand from his shirt and holding it with both of his.   
  
“You’re safe here, okay? It’s the hospital, you can relax a little. Everyone wants to help you,” he assured him. Atem looked skeptical, but let Yugi lower his hand back into his lap. He nodded reluctantly. “Try to get some sleep, and we’ll get everything sorted out tomorrow.”   
  
The three of them said their goodbyes to the doctor and nurse, Yugi throwing one last wave to Atem, who mirrored him with furrowed brows, before they walked through the hospital and out to the parking lot. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'll be uploading chapters as i complete them, so i dont have a set schedule, but i'll be aiming for at least one a week! thanks for reading! <3


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